Monday, September 19, 2011

Mesh yourself before you wreck yourself

Mesh is coming to SL & OpenSimulator and is already fully implemented in Jibe/Unity3D. Now is the time to get yourself retooled! If you worked with sculpties in SL/OpenSimulator you are already ready to go but what if you only used the prim based building tools in the SL client? Not to worry I have a solution. But first a little fun.

From concept to virtual realization to the real world. What if you are the next great architect or vehicle designer or otherwise creative innovator but nobody gets your description of what will be? 3D is a great visualization tool for such things. For example I have some concepts on what the ultimate motorcycle would look like but describing it verbally would be daunting.

Presenting the JiCycle. As a way to illustrate how you can visualize and even to a degree test innovative engineering concepts you can use 3D & animations to great effect. I got my start using these techniques to explain how to design, assemble, test and critique aerospace cable and connector designs. Let's use the JiCycle to show the process and how anyone can do the same.

JiCycle Specifications:

Borrowing technology from today and extrapolating how that technology might be expanded in the future I present the most environmentally friendly cycle design possible.

Horsepower @ all 3 wheels 650 bhp.

Braking in 10 feet from 100 mph.

Top speed 350 mph.

Wet weight 155 lbs.

Engine-High Discharge Capacitve Electricity Cell. Using capacitive technology to store electrical energy this type of "fuel cell" provides high power with low weight. Instantly rechargable and with no moving parts this power unit can drive the magnetic propulsion, steering and onboard computers.

Suspension/Braking/Drivetrain/Steering-MagLev will levitate the cycle through biasing of electromagnetic lines of flux between components and provide forward, reverse, steering and braking similar to today's trains. Other than the rubber & nylon electromagnetic tires hitting the road there are zero friction points on this cycle. Wireless Bluetooth provides all intra-vehicle communications.

Frame-A mix of carbon fiber & titanium monocoque allows for the lightest possible frame without sacrificing integrity. The components of this cycle are all held together via electromagnetic attraction & propulsion meaning disassembly is as easy as turning off the system power.

Recharge-Capacitors can be instantly recharged unlike lithium ion batteries. Using wireless energy transfer technologies the JiCycle can be recharged via inductors embedded in the road, roadside RF transmission towers, solar cells or even on the fly transfers from other vehicles.

So there it is. Technology for everything described is in place today but not yet at a feasible level to create such a vehicle. As you can tell from the static renderings in this post my job of describing this ultimate design (IMHO) of a cycle is much more easily explained with such images.

What about taking these models and allowing users to simulate how the above systems would work? That is the subject matter of today's next blog post along with information on how you can do the exact same thing for your concepts with 100% free tools. Stay tuned!